Reuters - The U.S. 4x400m relay team that won gold at the Sydney Games in 2000 have been stripped of their medals after Antonio Pettigrew admitted to doping, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Saturday.

Reuters - The U.S. unemployment rate hit its highest in four years during July as employers cut jobs for a seventh straight month, though less severely than predicted, a Labor Department report showed on Friday.

Reuters - Republican John McCain's presidential team mocked Democrat Barack Obama on Friday as an overconfident, Messiah-like candidate with a tendency toward exaggeration in a Web ad that closed out a week of attacks.

AP - Randy Johnson and the Arizona Diamondbacks ruined Manny Ramirez's debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Johnson (9-7) won his fifth straight start and climbed within seven wins of 300, allowing an unearned run and five hits over six innings in Arizona's 2-1 victory Friday night.

AP - Lindsay Lohan said Friday that police have no business getting involved in her personal life, a day after the police chief explained that the paparazzi were no longer an issue — in part because the 22-year-old actress had evidently "gone gay."

AP - A 97-year-old woman says her cat's early morning yowling saved her from a house fire. Grace George, of Independence, said her cat Boo Boo's yowling from an open bedroom window early Wednesday woke her up from a sound sleep.

AP - The Brazilian man accused of killing and dismembering a British teenager and stuffing her torso in a suitcase confessed to the murder on Friday in a deposition to police, his lawyer said.

AP - A gunman suspected of opening fire on a group of young swimmers gathered along a riverbank was arrested Friday after he emerged from woods near the scene where three teenagers were slain and a fourth person was wounded.

AP - A man who witnesses said stabbed and beheaded his seat mate on a Greyhound bus in Canada made his first court appearance Friday, while police offered no motive for the savage attack against a 22-year-old carnival worker.

AP - Just months after Americans repaired a sewage treatment plant in southern Baghdad, insurgents attacked the facility and killed the manager. Looters took care of the rest.

AP - John McCain, the father of private school students, criticized Democratic rival Barack Obama on Friday for choosing private over public school for his kids.

AP - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday he would be willing to support limited additional offshore oil drilling if that's what it takes to enact a comprehensive policy to foster fuel-efficient autos and develop alternate energy sources.

AP - Seven years after anthrax-laced letters terrorized an already frightened nation, a new suspect suddenly emerged in the public eye this week. But he was gone just as quickly, committing suicide before he could be charged with murder and adding another dramatic twist to the bizarre episode.

AFP - Bomb blasts killed five NATO soldiers in Afghanistan on Friday, the alliance force said, in the latest in a surge of extremist attacks that have raised alarm about deteriorating security.

AFP - Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic claimed Friday the United States wanted him dead after reneging on a deal to shield him from trial by the UN war crimes court.